The "Self" Begins to Awake: On the Philosophical Thought of Gong Zizhen

Abstract

In Europe, as the transition was made from the Middle Ages to the modern age, there was an upheaval of the ideological current of humanism (also called humanitarianism). A struggle against the rule of the church and of feudal autocracy was launched, and with it there was the beginning of the awareness of "self." This had a tremendously deep influence on the development of modern philosophy in Europe. In China, too, a similar process was experienced. On the eve of the Opium War, in his critical revelation about the "declining age," Gong Zizhen proposed the premise that "For every man there is a master; we call it self." This signaled that the idea of "self was beginning to awaken, and individuality made its demand to struggle to be free of the bondage of feudalism. It is precisely because of this that Gong Zizhen became the first "pioneer" of China's modern philosophy.